Speech recognition technology in radiology

Speech recognition devices are promising tools for the healthcare system. Speech recognition technology has had a relatively long history of use in Western healthcare systems since the 1970s. However, it became widely used at the beginning of the 21st century, replacing medical transcriptionists. This technology is relatively new in home healthcare. Its active development began only in the early 2010s, and its implementation in healthcare started in late 2010. This delay is due to the idiosyncrasies of the Russian language and the limited computational power present at the beginning of the 21st century. Currently, complexes of devices and software for speech recognition are used in the voice filling of medical records and can reduce the time for preparing reports for radiological examinations compared with traditional (keyboard) text input. The literature review provides a brief history of speech recognition technology development and application in radiography. Key scientific studies showing its efficacy in Western healthcare systems are reflected. Voice recognition technology in the home is demonstrated, and its effectiveness is evaluated. The prospects for further development of this technology in Russian healthcare are described

Effect of Temperature on Physical and Mechanical Properties of Monolithic Polycarbonate

The study of the physical and mechanical properties of polycarbonate under various temperature conditions, taking into account its widespread use as a base material of monolithic polycarbonate systems in various climatic regions, will ensure a high degree of reliability of structures during operation in a wide temperature range. The authors of the article conducted a series of tensile tests of monolithic polycarbonate in the temperature range from -60 to +80 °C. The influence of temperature on the following characteristics of monolithic polycarbonate was evaluated: elongation at break, tensile yield strength, tensile stress at break, strains at the end of the elastic stage of the material. As a result of the conducted experimental studies, the relationship between the strength properties of monolithic polycarbonate and the operating temperature was revealed. The values of elongation at break at temperatures exceeding 15 °C for various samples generally correspond to the values obtained during tests conducted under standard conditions

Physics case for an LHCb Upgrade II - Opportunities in flavour physics, and beyond, in the HL-LHC era

The LHCb Upgrade II will fully exploit the flavour-physics opportunities of the HL-LHC, and study additional physics topics that take advantage of the forward acceptance of the LHCb spectrometer. The LHCb Upgrade I will begin operation in 2020. Consolidation will occur, and modest enhancements of the Upgrade I detector will be installed, in Long Shutdown 3 of the LHC (2025) and these are discussed here. The main Upgrade II detector will be installed in long shutdown 4 of the LHC (2030) and will build on the strengths of the current LHCb experiment and the Upgrade I. It will operate at a luminosity up to 2×1034 cm−2s−1, ten times that of the Upgrade I detector. New detector components will improve the intrinsic performance of the experiment in certain key areas. An Expression Of Interest proposing Upgrade II was submitted in February 2017. The physics case for the Upgrade II is presented here in more depth. CP-violating phases will be measured with precisions unattainable at any other envisaged facility. The experiment will probe b → sl+l−and b → dl+l− transitions in both muon and electron decays in modes not accessible at Upgrade I. Minimal flavour violation will be tested with a precision measurement of the ratio of B(B0 → μ+μ−)/B(Bs → μ+μ−). Probing charm CP violation at the 10−5 level may result in its long sought discovery. Major advances in hadron spectroscopy will be possible, which will be powerful probes of low energy QCD. Upgrade II potentially will have the highest sensitivity of all the LHC experiments on the Higgs to charm-quark couplings. Generically, the new physics mass scale probed, for fixed couplings, will almost double compared with the pre-HL-LHC era; this extended reach for flavour physics is similar to that which would be achieved by the HE-LHC proposal for the energy frontier

LHCb upgrade software and computing : technical design report

This document reports the Research and Development activities that are carried out in the software and computing domains in view of the upgrade of the LHCb experiment. The implementation of a full software trigger implies major changes in the core software framework, in the event data model, and in the reconstruction algorithms. The increase of the data volumes for both real and simulated datasets requires a corresponding scaling of the distributed computing infrastructure. An implementation plan in both domains is presented, together with a risk assessment analysis

Association between Alcohol Consumption and Body Composition in Russian Adults and Patients Treated for Alcohol-Related Disorders: The Know Your Heart Cross-Sectional Study

There is conflicting evidence about the association between alcohol consumption and body composition (BC). We aimed to investigate this association in Russian adults. The study population included 2357 residents of Arkhangelsk aged 35–69 years, and 272 in-patients treated for alcohol problems (narcological patients) who participated in the Know Your Heart (KYH) cross-sectional study in 2015–2017. The participants were divided into five subgroups based on their alcohol use characteristics: non-drinkers, non-problem drinkers, hazardous drinkers, harmful drinkers, and narcological patients. Considering men, hazardous drinkers had a larger waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and percentage of body fat mass (%FM) compared to non-problem drinkers. In harmful drinking men, these differences were the opposite: a lower body mass index (BMI), hip circumference (HC), and %FM. Men among narcological patients had the lowest mean BMI, WC, HC, WHR, and %FM compared to other subgroups of men. As for women, non-drinkers had a lower BMI, WC, HC, and %FM compared to non-problem drinkers. Women among narcological patients had the lowest mean BMI and HC but an increased WHR compared to other subgroups of women. In conclusion, alcohol consumption levels had an inverted J-shaped association with adiposity-related BC parameters: they were elevated in hazardous drinkers but were reduced in harmful drinkers, and were even lower in patients with alcohol-related diagnoses

ChemInform Abstract: Asymmetric Synthesis and Molecular Docking Study of Enantiomerically Pure Pyrrolidine Derivatives with Potential Antithrombin Activity.

The (2R,4R,5S)- and (2S,4S,5R)-enantiomers of 4-(tert-butyl) 2-methyl 5-(4-bromophenyl)-pyrrolidine-2,4-dicarboxylate 3 were synthesized efficiently with an ee of >90% on a gram scale using a FAM-catalytic methodology. Subsequent modification afforded enantiopure N-((4-chlorophenyl)thio)acetyl pyrrolidine derivatives 4, which are potential thrombin inhibitors according to comprehensive molecular docking studies

Asymmetric synthesis and molecular docking study of enantiomerically pure pyrrolidine derivatives with potential antithrombin activity

The (2R,4R,5S)- and (2S,4S,5R)-enantiomers of 4-(tert-butyl) 2-methyl 5-(4-bromophenyl)-pyrrolidine-2,4-dicarboxylate 3 were synthesized efficiently with an ee of >90% on a gram scale using a FAM-catalytic methodology. Subsequent modification afforded enantiopure N-((4-chlorophenyl)thio)acetyl pyrrolidine derivatives 4, which are potential thrombin inhibitors according to comprehensive molecular docking studies

Using a mobile computer tomography scanner in a field hospital setting to manage patients with COVID-19

The global outbreak of COVID-19 has posed unprecedented challenges to healthcare systems worldwide. Healthcare administrators had to make quick and effective decisions to ensure high quality of medical care standards in new conditions. The need to form a reserve bed fund during the pandemic was due to the high load on city hospitals in Moscow. Due to this fact, temporary reserved hospitals for COVID-19 patients were organized in non-core facilities, such as ice arenas, shopping malls, and exhibition pavilions. This urgency prompted a search for solutions that could provide the necessary level of diagnosis and treatment appropriate to specialized medical facility. Given the technical and time constraints associated with the installation of a fixed computer tomographic scanner, the deployment of mobile computer tomographic scanners emerged as a viable option. The study aims to share insights gained from using a mobile computer tomographic scanner within a temporary backup hospital setting to treating patients with COVID-19 coronavirus infection. The paper discusses the features, advantages, and disadvantages of mobile computer tomography. It also presents hardware and control room layouts, along with the placement options for the computer tomography device. The research includes the results of dosimetry studies and provides a clinical assessment of the applicability of this type of diagnostic devices

Analogs of 6-Bromohypaphorine with Increased Agonist Potency for α7 Nicotinic Receptor as Anti-Inflammatory Analgesic Agents

Hypaphorines, tryptophan derivatives, have anti-inflammatory activity, but their mechanism of action was largely unknown. Marine alkaloid L-6-bromohypaphorine with EC50 of 80 μM acts as an agonist of α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) involved in anti-inflammatory regulation. We designed the 6-substituted hypaphorine analogs with increased potency using virtual screening of their binding to the α7 nAChR molecular model. Fourteen designed analogs were synthesized and tested in vitro by calcium fluorescence assay on the α7 nAChR expressed in neuro 2a cells, methoxy ester of D-6-iodohypaphorine (6ID) showing the highest potency (EC50 610 nM), being almost inactive toward α9α10 nAChR. The macrophages cytometry revealed an anti-inflammatory activity, decreasing the expression of TLR4 and increasing CD86, similarly to the action of PNU282987, a selective α7 nAChR agonist. 6ID administration in doses 0.1 and 0.5 mg/kg decreased carrageenan-induced allodynia and hyperalgesia in rodents, in accord with its anti-inflammatory action. Methoxy ester of D-6-nitrohypaphorine demonstrated anti-oedemic and analgesic effects in arthritis rat model at i.p. doses 0.05–0.26 mg/kg. Tested compounds showed excellent tolerability with no acute in vivo toxicity in dosages up to 100 mg/kg i.p. Thus, combining molecular modelling and natural product-inspired drug design improved the desired activity of the chosen nAChR ligand